


(for you i'll do anything)

by cian1675



Series: (re - published) [1]
Category: Infinite (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gang World, Alternate Universe - Gangsters, Angst, Cussing, Gen, M/M, Violence, also pretty much everyone except myungsoo appears at some point but they only have a small part each, not a lot but it's a gang au after all, someone dies in the prologue but it's only mentioned and not described in detail
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-06
Updated: 2017-02-18
Packaged: 2018-09-22 11:08:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9605282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cian1675/pseuds/cian1675
Summary: Woohyun's the leader of a relatively powerful gang in the city. He has changed a lot since his days as an underling in Sunggyu's gang and left a lot behind in order to make it this far, but a phone call from someone he hasn't seen for 18 years is all it takes to change everything he knows.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally written as a Block B fic under the same title ([For you I'll do anything](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8481802/chapters/19436086)), with name changes and some minor edits for characterization to fit Infinite members. It is pretty much the same as the original, so if you've read that before, I apologize. It's just that as an author, I have a few works I really like, and some of them are in Block B which honestly doesn't have a big fic fandom compared to Infinite, so I decided to (essentially) republish this here. Anyway, the good news is, everything's already written, so I'll be able to update this regularly. ^^ I'll love to know what you think about the fic, and if you've not read this before, I'll advise you not to read the original lol.

**Prologue**

_They were supposed to be tending to each other’s injuries. He had been dutifully checking Howon’s bare upper body for any cuts that might get infected, rubbing ointment into the bruises that were sure to form tomorrow. Howon had been doing the same, checking Woohyun for any signs of damage besides superficial wounds. All things considered, that they only have bruises, cuts and nothing worse to show for the beating they took is a good thing. Howon gently drags a wet towel over Woohyun’s busted lip to get rid of the dried blood, and he sucks up the whimper that threatens to slip past his tongue. It stings. But then Howon leans forward, pressing a gentle, almost barely there kiss to the other corner of his lips where it’s uninjured and Woohyun forgets about the pain for a little while. It doesn’t take long before their original task of tending to injuries is forgotten, although Woohyun can’t exactly say he minds._

_The bed is creaky when they both tumble onto it, and the springs in the old mattress dig into his back when he lies down. But Howon is gentle, gentler than he usually is, and Woohyun forgets about everything but the feather-light touches he receives. When they’re both spent and exhausted, Woohyun pulls the thread-bare blanket to cover their bodies, resting his head against the pillow to watch Howon sleep. He looks so peaceful, Woohyun thinks, and he wishes he could fall asleep as well, join Howon in his peaceful rest, but his own mind is churning._

_Woohyun had honestly expected a much harsher punishment for both of them after they asked to leave the gang. But maybe the underlings doing the punishment felt bad and went easy on them. After all, it isn’t every day that your good friend who joined the gang with you dies in a local fight, and Woohyun supposes that most of them assumed that his reason for leaving the gang is the same as Howon’s. Howon wanted to leave after Dongwoo died in the fight. Maybe he had thought about it before, but Woohyun knows the real trigger is Dongwoo’s sudden and unexpected death. They’ve been friends with Dongwoo since elementary school, the three of them an unbreakable trio. Dongwoo’s death was a shock for both of them, but maybe more so for Howon. He said it made him realize that what they’re doing, the kind of life they’re living, isn’t worth it. “What’s the point of being in a gang?” Howon had asked. It was a rhetorical question. Shortly after he had gone to their leader and asked to leave. Woohyun had went with him and asked to leave as well. He didn’t tell Howon why though. He lets Howon assume, along with everyone else, that it’s because of Dongwoo._

_Because it’s easier that way._

_It’s easier than telling Howon that he’s been thinking of leaving their old gang for a while already. It’s easier than telling Howon that he thinks their old gang is too small, their leader too unambitious for what he wants to do. It’s easier than telling Howon that he wants to leave their old gang because he wants to join a new one, a bigger one. Woohyun doesn’t want tell Howon any of this, not while Howon’s peacefully sleeping, nor later when he wakes up. He doesn’t think Howon would want to know._

_That night, he leaves Howon’s tiny one-room apartment on the guise of going out to buy more bandages, but Woohyun doesn’t return. It’s cowardly, but it’s easy._

_It’s the last time he sees Howon._


	2. The past never truly gets left behind

**Chapter 1: The past never truly gets left behind**

It starts with a phone call from an unknown number. Woohyun had told his men to not answer calls from unknown numbers, but when the same phone number flashes up on the phone screen for the fifth time in an hour, Woohyun gives up and lets Sungjong, his right hand man, pick it up. He’s not sure how anyone got the number for his private line, but Woohyun trusts Sungjong to take care of whatever happens, so he isn’t paying attention when Sungjong talks on the phone. It’s only when Sungjong calls his name repeatedly does Woohyun look up, annoyed.

“What?”

Sungjong gives him a bored look, as if Woohyun isn’t his boss or someone capable of killing him at the snap of his finger if he wants to, and just says, “It’s from someone called Howon. He says you’ll take this call once I tell you his name.”

It takes a while for what Sungjong says to stick in his mind.  _Howon._  It’s been so long. He narrows his eyes at Sungjong but puts a hand out for the phone. Sungjong simply places it on his palm, and Woohyun brings the phone to his ear, hesitant to answer the call but not willing to show it in front of Sungjong. He can never be too careful after all, even if he thinks Sungjong is as trustworthy as gang members can get.

“Hello?” Woohyun says. He prepares himself for the reply, but he still gets surprised by the voice on the other end of the line.

“Woohyun? It’s Howon. I need your help.”

 

 

Woohyun’s sitting at a table in a private room of a pub, waiting. He’s supposed to meet Howon although it’s still another ten minutes to their agreed time. Whatever he needs help for, Howon hadn’t been willing to divulge over the phone, and Woohyun understands the cautiousness. So he had given Howon the address for one of his lesser known pubs, where he knows they will have privacy. He’s running a hand through his slicked back hair, adjusting the heavy leather jacket on his shoulders when the door opens.

“He says he’s Howon,” Sungjong says, stepping back slightly to let whoever is behind him appear in the doorway, and Woohyun moves his hand to cradle the cold metal of his gun holstered in the small of his back. From his spot in the room, he has a clear shot of the door, and in case the guy isn’t actually Howon, Woohyun would be able to defend himself at a moment’s notice. It turns out to actually be Howon though, and Woohyun isn’t sure if the little exhale he makes is from not having to shoot anyone today, or from seeing Howon again, after so long.

Howon’s wearing a simple coat over a pressed shirt and slacks, almost the picture of a working man, but his gaze on Woohyun’s hand behind his back is indication enough that this here is the same guy who used to be in a gang with him. Howon doesn’t say anything about Woohyun almost drawing a gun on him, just makes his way to the seat across Woohyun and takes off his coat.  _No weapons on me_ , the gesture seems to say, but Woohyun isn’t entirely sure if Howon still remembers all this, or if he’s just removing the coat because it’s hot in the room.

While he’s folding his coat, Woohyun takes the time to observe him. Howon’s older now, face a little more mature, squarer, his hair a little longer, no longer shaved short on the sides although the overall look is similar to the cut he used to have. He still looks like the boy he had been when Woohyun left him, just older, and not in a bad way. He looks well-fed too, like whatever corporate life he might have chosen after he left the gang working out well for him, but there are also little smudges under his eyes like he hasn’t been sleeping well. He wonders if Howon has been living a good life after he got out of the gang. He hopes so. But then again, if he is, why would he be asking for help? Woohyun’s about to ask, but Howon beats him to it.

“I won’t be finding you if I have any other choice,” Howon says slowly, without any preamble. Woohyun raises an eyebrow, and Howon returns his look with a determined one of his own, although there’s a trace of something else behind it.

“It’s… my daughter. She has been kidnapped.”

It takes Woohyun a while to digest the fact that Howon has a  _daughter_ , let alone that she has been kidnapped. When he recovers his senses, the first thing he says is, “Shouldn’t you be calling the police instead of telling me this?”

Although Woohyun himself runs afoul of the police, he’s not so abhorrent of the law to think that approaching a gang leader like himself for a problem like Howon’s is the best solution. Surely, for a now-upright citizen like Howon, it’ll be better to call the police instead? He tells Howon as much, but all it does is make Howon shake his head.

“I can’t. I can’t go to the police.”

Woohyun’s about to ask why, when Howon sighs, burying his face against his palms. His voice is shaky when he says the next sentence.

“It’s  _them_  who took her.”

It doesn’t take much to guess who  _they_  are, and all Woohyun can think of is,  _well,_   _shit_.

 

 

They used to be in a gang together when they were younger, Howon and him. It’s not the same one that Woohyun’s the leader of now; just some small local gang ran by some guy called Sunggyu. They had managed to leave the gang after getting beaten up, although he supposed they weren’t beaten up too badly, as far as gang protocols go. Sunggyu’s still running the same gang, but Woohyun has since joined and worked his way up a bigger regional gang, and he always assumed that that was that. It’s rare for gang members to be allowed to leave a gang without too much fuss, but Woohyun had assumed that the beating was the end of it, since he hadn’t gotten any other trouble over the years. Apparently he’s wrong. Maybe  _he_  had been immune to more trouble because he’s part of a larger, more powerful gang, but Howon hadn’t had the same privilege, and Woohyun’s learning just how much of a grudge Sunggyu still has.

“Fuck, it’s been what? 18 years? Sunggyu’s still bothering you?”

Howon blinks rapidly, then replies, “I won’t mind if it’s just me –” and  _that_ makes Woohyun wonder if he’s gotten beaten up more times in between – “but I think he’s been getting his underlings to befriend my daughter and… Well, all I know is that she was supposed to just be going to a friend’s party but it’s been 2 days now and I’ve not heard from her. I don’t even have any proof that it’s his doing, but I … I just have a  _feeling_.”

If it was anyone else saying this, Woohyun would probably laugh in their face and ask Sungjong to show them the way out. But because it’s  _Howon_ , Woohyun nods along when he explains that he can’t exactly go to the police, because he might be endangering his daughter – his sixteen year old daughter who’s old enough to not listen to her father when he tells her to stay away from strange men, but too young to be able to protect herself. Even if Howon does report her as missing, and let the cops try to find her, they won’t be able to do their jobs well without knowing what Howon knows about Sunggyu having a grudge against him.

Woohyun listens to all of this, politely nodding like he’s only mildly interested when what he’s really doing is noting Howon’s distress under his carefully assembled façade of calm posture and business-like voice. He can only imagine how Howon must feel right now, thinking about all the terrible things that could happen to a young girl like his daughter. Still, he can’t let it show. After all, he’s not the same Woohyun he used to be, no longer just the teenage boy who joined a gang with Howon and Dongwoo because he thought it’ll be fun ( _oh, how silly he had been_   _then_ ).

Instead, he’s now the leader of the regional gang (or “mob boss” as Sungjong sometimes call him even though he’s far from being that powerful) and he has responsibilities, expectations and protocols to fulfill. He can’t let any of that slip, even if he’s in front of only Howon. He can’t. He’s worked too long and hard to do that. So Woohyun sits unmoving, listening to Howon like he doesn’t care, even though everything in his body tells him otherwise. Howon, on his part, doesn’t comment on it, just explains what he needs to about his situation and why he needs Woohyun’s help. He doesn’t beg or grovel, even though he’s clearly anxious about his daughter, and that eats at Woohyun more than he wants to admit or show.

He’s not weak by any means, having worked his way up the gang and done all the criminal tasks, small and big, to fight for his current position, but Woohyun finds himself weakening in front of Howon. He’s the one with power here, power that he had made with his own two hands, but somehow this man in front of him has the ability to reduce him to shambles. When Howon’s done explaining everything, Woohyun takes a long breath just to halt his words so he won’t seem like he’s too eager.

He’s already decided to help Howon find her halfway through his explanations anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2 chapters today since the prologue was pretty short, and Ch1 is the main story's start :)
> 
> Also, I'm sorry Dongwoo got killed so fast. But he's not unimportant, let's just say. Still, I think this is the second time I killed Dongwoo in a fic. Or rather, this is the second fic I wrote where Dongwoo's dead in the fic before he's even introduced lol. Sorry, Dongwoo's a ball of sunshine, I don't know why I do this to him ;_;
> 
> Anyway, let me know what you think about the story so far :) Comments and kudos are very much appreciated~


	3. Her

**Chapter 2: Her**

Woohyun personally drives Howon back after the meeting. He could just have Sungjong send Howon home if he wanted to be sure that Howon gets home safely, but Woohyun finds himself asking for his car keys from Sungjong, and he settles into the driver’s seat of his car for the first time in a while. The drive back is silent, Howon sitting in shotgun but facing the windows most of the ride. Woohyun doesn’t hold it against him. He supposes the other is just sick with worried about his daughter, and although he understands, he’s not sure what to say, so he keeps his mouth shut the whole way.

He’s turning into the carpark when Howon says, “If you want to, you can come up. I should probably pass you some photos of her anyway. And whatever else you might need to search for her.”

It’s such a logical thought that Woohyun’s not sure why he hadn’t thought of it first, but he’s glad because it gives him a reason for personally driving Howon back and for going up to his place, so he goes along with it. When he’s at the door of Howon’s apartment, Howon finds a spare pair of indoor slippers for him, and he takes the silent invitation to enter the house.

Woohyun’s casually looking around the house, sizable but relatively empty like it’s not fully lived in, when he hears himself ask, “Since when did you have a daughter?” The question had slipped out now that he’s in Howon’s house and he’s not constantly reminded of his responsibilities, but it’s really a question that has been on his mind since Howon had told him he has a daughter. He has to pretend like it doesn’t hurt a little to even be asking Howon the question, but Woohyun quickly pushes the feeling away, knowing that he probably did more shit (fucked more people) during their time apart than Howon. He shouldn’t be one to judge. They each have their own life, and Woohyun was the one who walked away after all, all those years ago.

Pausing in his search of photos of his daughter, Howon looks up. The pain in his eyes at the mention of her is obvious. It makes Woohyun almost regret asking. But then Howon blinks and the pain is hidden away, and he answers, “I got married. After we left the gang. And well, you know, as with married couples, a child tends to happen.”

The tone and phrasing is detached, as if Howon doesn’t want to mention his daughter too much, which Woohyun can kind of understand. It’s a coping mechanism, and those he knows well. He nods, then asks, “How’s your wife?” He hasn’t seen any traces of her in the house so far, and thought maybe they might be separated or Howon might have been a single parent. But Howon had just said he’s married, so he’s wondering. Howon’s face goes blank at the question, or maybe it’s sadness crossing his face, before he answers simply, “She’s dead.”

Oh. Of all the possible answers, he hadn’t expected  _that_. It makes Woohyun feel sorry, sorry for asking, sorry about all of this mess, sorry that he had been the one to drag Howon into Sunggyu’s gang all those years ago and how Howon’s still dealing with the consequences of that unplanned teenage move. So he decides to stick to asking about information that will help him find Howon’s daughter. Things like, how tall is she, where had she been going before he lost contact with her and factual stuff like that. Woohyun sticks to doing what he can do to help Howon for now, because if he doesn’t, he’ll think about how he hadn’t been able to help him at all in all the years in between (and how all of it is his fault).

 

 

He has a few of his men – as many as he can spare without raising suspicion – working on finding Howon’s daughter, but they don’t find anything after a full day. That in itself tells him that Howon’s suspicion that it is Sunggyu’s doing is probably right, and  _that_  worries him. He’s not sure if he should tell Howon about it, if any of this is useful information at all, but Woohyun decides that maybe knowing would be better than not knowing at all. That’s how he ends up at Howon’s apartment in the evening, knocking on his door.

“Did you…?” Howon asks too anxiously the moment he opens the door and sees Woohyun standing outside, but Woohyun shakes his head a little. He ignores how Howon slumps in response, moving to walk past Howon into the house without invitation.

“I’m sorry,” Woohyun says later when Howon hands him a glass of water at the kitchen counter. “I have people working on it, but so far they haven’t been able to find anything. It’s quite likely that Sunggyu’s behind this, and that’s why we can’t even find anything about her. We’re still looking though.” He wants to add a “don’t worry” but he doesn’t think it’s in his right to, so Woohyun just takes a sip of the water. Howon sighs, but he doesn’t seem entirely surprised by the information, just resigned, and Woohyun finds himself automatically reaching over to pat his back soothingly.

“It’s not your fault,” Howon mumbles after a while, and Woohyun wants to laugh, because he should be the one saying it; should be the one comforting Howon, but he’s the one getting comforted instead. He stops patting Howon, running a hand through his own hair absently instead.

“Shouldn’t I be the one telling you that?”

Howon sits up to look at him, eyes turning sad but the corner of his lips turning up. “I guess. But does it matter?”

“…Probably not,” Woohyun hears himself say in the end. In front of him, Howon looks so vulnerable with that sad smile still on his face. So vulnerable in a way he was never before, not because Howon’s weak now or because Howon’s older now, but because Howon has something precious now, something which he can lose easily but is still trying so hard to protect. Woohyun tries not to think about the fact that all it means is that Howon didn’t used to have something  _that_ precious; that  _he_  had never been that precious to Howon.

Instead, he drains the water from the glass, setting it on the table, ready to leave. He has delivered the news to Howon already, and he has no other business here. Woohyun’s grabbing his jacket, ready to go, when Howon says, “You know, you look different today.”

Woohyun looks down at what he’s wearing, a simple white long sleeved shirt and blue jeans, and raises an eyebrow.

“You looked like a mob boss the other day, with the flashy maroon shirt and leather jacket,” Howon explains, walking up to him and straightening his neckline. It’s an old top, loose with wash, exposing his collarbones and too much skin. Woohyun notices Howon’s eyes linger around his neckline before he looks into Woohyun’s eyes and continues in a low voice, “Today you look more like the Woohyun I knew.” A pause. “The kid I knew back then.”

Woohyun doesn’t have time to wonder why Howon sounds a little sad towards the end, before he finds their lips crashing into each other. He’s not even sure who moved first, him or Howon, but he vaguely registers Howon’s hand tugging at his hair, and his hands find their way under Howon’s soft t-shirt, seeking the hot flush of skin on skin. The feeling of Howon against him, his lips nudging, nibbling at his, is so familiar that he doesn’t immediately notice when Howon freezes. It’s only when Howon stops kissing, turning his face away does Woohyun look up.

“We shouldn’t be doing this,” Howon says by way of explanation, and Woohyun has to blink to clear his mind. He vaguely notices Howon pulling his hand away from where it had been resting on his back, and  _then_  he remembers that he had still been wearing his holster.

_The kid I knew back then._

Maybe the gun is just another thing to remind them that they’re no longer the same people they had been all those years ago. Woohyun looks at Howon, the other pointedly looking away now, holding his arms close like he shouldn’t be touching Woohyun, _hadn’t_ been touching him earlier. There’s nothing he can do to change anything, so Woohyun just puts on a blank expression, pretends that nothing’s wrong and straightens his clothes before he leaves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter titles have hints of what's coming later, and there's something in this chapter that may seem unimportant right now but will be quite important later. Being cryptic but ahh, I feel like pointing it out haha. Also, the next chapter will be the "end" but there's an epilogue afterwards.
> 
> Hope you've enjoyed reading so far :) Let me know what you think~


	4. End

**Chapter 3: End**

After a few days, they finally have a lead. Or rather, Sunggyu probably grew sick of Woohyun’s men poking their noses into his territory and the casualties they’re leaving, offering to meet with them instead – just a “little talk” with Woohyun and Howon in exchange for returning Howon’s daughter.

It sounds fishy as fuck.

Which it probably is. But Woohyun doesn’t have much choice, and this seems to be the best option he has. So he calls Howon to tell him that – knowing better than to visit him in person this time – and prepares for the meeting with Sunggyu. He takes all the precautions he can, having his men scout out the location they will be meeting at beforehand, checking for places to station his backup around the area in case Sunggyu doesn’t keep his word, and ensuring he has at least three escape routes memorized like the back of his hand for when things go south. He takes all the precautions he can, planning for all the possibilities he can think of, because Woohyun got so far not just by being fast on his feet, but by being smart as well. He only hopes it’s enough to get Howon’s daughter back with as little casualties as possible.

On the day they’re supposed to meet Sunggyu, Woohyun waits for Howon outside his apartment block so he can drive them both there. He could just have Howon make his way there himself, but Woohyun figured it’ll be safer if he brings Howon there. It’ll reduce the number of things that can go wrong along the way if he has Howon with him the whole time, and he can put his mind to worrying about other things that may go wrong instead. Howon doesn’t mention anything about what happened the last time Woohyun was at his place, and Woohyun doesn’t bring it up either. In fact, he doesn’t say anything besides telling Howon his plans for later, all the contingencies he has planned for, and what Howon should do in each of the case. Howon just nods, and only replies to say, “I don’t think I can run as fast as you need me to if  _that_  happens, my ankle doesn’t work like it used to”, which Woohyun notes in his mind. He mentally cancels the option of having Howon run out of the warehouse with his daughter while he and his backup try to stop Sunggyu and his men. (It had been a risky and not very practical plan to begin with, but Woohyun didn’t want to rule out any chance of contingency escape, no matter how small.)

They arrive at the warehouse Sunggyu had asked to meet at right on time, and Woohyun lets Sunggyu’s men guide him to where he’s supposed to park. It’s a long walk to the entrance of the warehouse, but Woohyun has already figured that Sunggyu would take that much precaution at least. He’s not surprised either when the burly men escorting him and Howon to the entrance pat them down at the door. What he is surprised at, though, is that Howon has a small knife on him, which Sunggyu’s men finds strapped to his ankle.

“Doesn’t hurt to try,” Howon answers to Woohyun’s unvoiced question, eyes determined but slightly resigned now that his weapon had been found.

Woohyun nods briefly, because he understands. They both knew that they would be searched for weapons before they were allowed to meet Sunggyu, but it never hurts to try and hide more weapons on their bodies in hopes of one, just one at least, making it past the check. Unfortunately, Woohyun’s last hope, the small blade in the sole of his shoe, gets found as well, and he has to school his face into a neutral expression even as he’s frustrated inside. It’s been so long since he met with another gang without Sungjong and his trustworthy men beside him, and it makes Woohyun feel weak and uncertain. But then he remembers that he’s not here as gang leader, but for Howon and his daughter. He can do this. Hasn’t he done this before when he was an underling?

_It’ll be okay. Everything will turn out okay._

Woohyun straightens his back as he follows the men into the main area of the warehouse, up the steel stairs leading to the mezzanine overseeing the endless rows of crates stacked on the ground floor. He doesn’t want to know what’s inside, but Woohyun can probably guess, especially if Sunggyu hadn’t changed too much in the years since he’s been in his gang. Howon lags behind him by a step, but no one says anything, not Sunggyu’s men from the front, and definitely not Woohyun. After a while, he reaches the mezzanine platform.

The first thing he notices is that there’s no girl on the platform, which means Howon’s daughter isn’t in sight. He hadn’t really been expecting that she would be (Sunggyu’s lazy, not _stupid_ ), but he  _might_  have been secretly hoping so (it’ll definitely have made his life a little easier). The second is that Sunggyu’s seated at a corner, smiling, but there’s no one else beside him. No guards, no other underlings. That should have been enough to raise an alarm, but Woohyun’s lulled into safety by the fact that all his adversaries are in front of him and in plain sight: Sunggyu and his three men who had escorted them from the car to the mezzanine. He forgets that someone’s still behind him.

When the pain comes, it’s too sudden, and Woohyun’s more shocked than hurt by the fact that he has a knife in his back. There’s a wetness seeping into his shirt, into the waistband of his jeans, and his legs suddenly buckle. It isn’t a fatal wound; he’s experienced worse, but Woohyun can’t wrap his mind around the fact that there’s only one person who could have stabbed him.

_Howon._

He wonders if Howon was put up to it, threatened by Sunggyu with his daughter as hostage.  _That_  he can understand. Holding in the pain, Woohyun twists his neck, trying to catch Howon’s eyes but instead of the conflicted emotions he expects to see, he finds a bland, dead look on the face he thought he had been so familiar with.

“Why?”

The question is scarcely out of his mouth before he feels a different pain, blunt and strong in his left shoulder, and Woohyun doesn’t need to see the blood dripping in a steady flow from his wound or the ringing in his ears to know that someone – probably Sunggyu – had fired a shot at him. He had been distracted by Howon stabbing him that he forgot about the other dangers in the room, and that had been dumb. So, so dumb. But he doesn’t have time to dwell on it, doesn’t have time to question. Woohyun grits his teeth, pushing against the ground to stand up so he can fight, but it’s a miscalculated move, because before he even gets to Sunggyu, his burly underlings have Woohyun pinned down. He struggles, pushing his weight to throw them off as best as he can, but he’s injured and they’re heavier, and after a while he feels his wounds bleed faster from the movement so he stops.

Fuck.

There’s a slap on his face, and Woohyun blinks his eyes open to see Sunggyu squatting next to him, a little too close, probably because he thinks he’s safe with Woohyun still pinned down. Woohyun doesn’t give him the satisfaction though. He lunges forward and tries to bite Sunggyu’s too straight nose, but the guy moves back in time, and all Woohyun’s teeth snags at is air.

“Feisty, aren’t you?” Sunggyu laughs, too brightly for someone whose nose had been  _this close_  to getting bitten off. Woohyun can only glare. He tries to count how long it has been since he came in. Three, maybe four minutes. His men were given instructions to come in at the tenth minute if Woohyun doesn’t give them instructions not to, and it seems like that might be his best chance. He wonders if he can stall for time before someone tries to put another bullet in him.

“Where’s she?” Woohyun settles for asking, because he doesn’t know where to start. (He doesn’t want to think about Howon, standing a little to the side, still holding a small blade stained with blood.)

“Oh, how  _hilarious_ ,” Sunggyu grins, turning to look at Howon. Woohyun doesn’t follow, keeping his gaze on Sunggyu instead, firmly ignoring Howon because he’s not sure he wants to see his expression. When no one says anything, Sunggyu sighs, and continues, “You guys are no fun. And also,  _you_  are kind of slow, for someone who’s a gang leader.”

Woohyun wants to snap, but he holds his tongue. Sunggyu doesn’t fall for the bait though. In the end he has to ask why before he gets a reply.

“Oh you mean you haven’t figured it out?” Sunggyu laughs. It was starting to annoy him, the constant barks of forced, hypocritical laughter.

“Figured  _what_  out?” Woohyun all but spits at him. Five minutes now. Just another four minutes to go.

“Figured out that she’s not in danger to begin with. Pfft.”

Woohyun has to pause at that.  _What._ “What are you talking about? Didn’t you threaten Howon with his daughter as hostage?”

Sunggyu leans in again, but more cautiously this time, out of Woohyun’s reach, and says slowly, “Is that why you think Howon stabbed you? Because I forced him to?”

Woohyun doesn’t get to answer, because Sunggyu’s laughing too loudly, and adding, “This is hilarious. Really is. You believe him so much, that you can’t come to the logical conclusion with all the facts in front of you.”

_All the facts…?_  Woohyun’s starting to feel a little faint now, but he still has three minutes more to last. He forces his eyes to stay open.

“He stabbed you because he wanted to. I’m not the only one with a grudge for you, Nam Woohyun.”

“…why?” he hears himself asks but Woohyun thinks it gets drowned by other sounds. He can’t really focus now, his mind drifting off, but he thinks he hears someone say  _we need to go, now, before Woohyun’s men come_ , and he knows that voice.

It’s Howon. Howon whom he had shared all his contingency plans with. Howon who would of course remember that Woohyun’s waiting for his backup to come in. Howon who had, for some reason, had a grudge against him, and betrayed him.

It’s the last thing he thinks about before he blacks out.

 

 

Woohyun wakes up to a room that’s too bright and smells like chemicals. He doesn’t have to open his eyes to know he’s in a hospital, but opening his eyes let him check that it’s  _his_  private one he’s in. Sungjong’s standing by the door, but notices when he stirs.

“I’ll call the doctor,” he says, and takes out his phone. Woohyun barely nods before his eyelids close again.

 

 

When the doctor comes, Woohyun sighs, because it’s Sungyeol. Sungyeol nags at him for getting shot at and stabbed at, going on and on about how it had been a pain to sew up the wounds, and how much trouble it was to get bags of blood for the amount he lost, and how he could have almost lost the use of his arm if not for being generally lucky. Woohyun scoffs. He wants to tell Sungyeol he’s anything but lucky, but the doctor stares at him, and he shuts up.

He owes the other that much, at least, for always patching him up in his private clinic when he doesn’t have to. Sungyeol’s mostly a law abiding citizen, but he had the misfortune to know Woohyun in middle school and high school, and after the first time Woohyun found him when he was injured badly enough he couldn’t handle it with a first-aid kit, Sungyeol has been the go-to doctor for Woohyun whenever he couldn’t head to a regular hospital. He can’t exactly get treated for a gunshot wound without getting the police involved, and in his line of work, that’s always a no-no. While Sungyeol can technically just refuse to treat Woohyun, he doesn’t ever do that for some reason. Maybe it’s because he really believes in saving people, even though it’s clear that he thinks Woohyun is a dumbass who probably needs more saving from himself than anyone else.

Anyway, Woohyun lets Sungyeol nag at him, because it’s familiar. After Sungyeol leaves, he lets Sungjong report to him about what happened at the warehouse, how no one but him was there when they rushed in at the tenth minute, even though he had already guessed as much. These are the things within his realm of accounted possibilities, things he’s familiar with. Woohyun doesn’t let himself think about the fact that the reason he’s lying in the hospital bed right now is because he hadn’t managed to account for everything. He doesn’t think about it, because he doesn’t want to think about  _him_.

 

 

In the end, he doesn’t even have to try very hard not to think about Howon, because Woohyun finds out that he’s disappeared. Sunggyu and his gang are still around, but no one tells him anything, and Woohyun can’t exactly spend all his manpower on something that’s only important to him, so he stops sending his men to question Sunggyu’s underlings for information. He stops trying to find him, but it doesn’t mean he completely stops thinking about Howon.

He tries though. He tries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did anyone see that coming? ._. 
> 
> For those who commented/saw the comments, you might have already known that a plot twist was coming up, haha. Anyway, if some things still don't make sense, the epilogue should clear things up. Like I said in the last chapter, the chapter titles are hints, and also something important was revealed in the last chapter which might have seemed insignificant. Let me know what you think so far, and I'll love to hear any speculations you guys might have :)
> 
> Also, you can find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/cian1675).


	5. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

The sun is too bright but Woohyun thinks it suits the day. It’ll be better than having a gloomy sky when he visits Dongwoo’s grave. After all, even if Dongwoo’s gone, he had been a bright person when he was around, and the weather reminds Woohyun of Dongwoo, of his days as an underling in Sunggyu’s gang. He has to pause before the thought drifts too far, before it drifts to  _someone else_.

(It already did, but he can pretend.)

He’s getting better at not thinking about  _him_ , Woohyun lies to himself, counting the steps up the hill to Dongwoo’s grave with Sungjong following behind. He doesn’t go anywhere without at least Sungjong around nowadays. Call him paranoid, but Woohyun thinks it’s safer. Also, Sungyeol nags less when he does turn up at his clinic, so that’s always a bonus. The bouquet of flowers in his arms make a rustling noise when he shifts it to his other hand as he walks down the row, trying to find Dongwoo’s grave. He almost misses it, and when he does find it, Woohyun has to do a double-take because he thinks it’s a mistake: there’re already flowers on the tombstone.

No one else but him visits Dongwoo’s grave, no one but…

The thought’s not even complete before Woohyun finds himself picking up the bouquet already on the tombstone, searching for a note, a card, anything. His own bouquet drops by his feet in the meantime, but he manages to find a small note tightly tucked into the ribbon of the bouquet he found.

Woohyun pulls out the note, unfolding it with trembling hands. He’s not sure what he expects to find. Or maybe he knows what he expects to find, but he isn’t sure if he’s prepared.

_Woohyun,_

_I’m sorry. I could explain everything but I’m not sure if you want to know. I know it doesn’t excuse what I did, but I still feel like you deserve some sort of explanation. You can burn this without reading if you don’t want to know._

_The first thing I want to say is that my daughter is safe, has always been, and she’s studying overseas with no knowledge of anything that has happened. I was the one who worked with Sunggyu, and she was never part of this. Please don’t find her if you want to look for revenge. Find me. Or Sunggyu. Whoever you want, as long as it’s not her._

_The second thing I wanted to say is something I probably should have told you when you asked me about my wife. She’s dead. I didn’t lie about that. But I also didn’t tell you that the reason why she’s gone is because she got caught in a bad time and place when your gang was having a fight with another gang, and she was one of the causalities. I thought you knew, and I blamed you. For the longest time I blamed you, because I thought you probably kept tabs on me even after you left, the same way I did. That’s how I knew you became the leader of the regional gang. Anyway, I assumed that you kept tabs on me, and would therefore know about my wife and kept tabs on her as well. That’s why I thought you knew about her death, but had asked me when we met to be polite. I didn’t know that you really didn’t know. But that day at the warehouse, when I realized you had no clue what Sunggyu was saying, that’s when I realized that you really had no idea that she was unintentionally harmed by your gang activities._

_Her death was a huge loss to me, and I wasn’t quite the same after it. Ironically, it’s Sunggyu who found me and got me back on my feet. He offered to pay for my daughter’s education in that period when I was down, in return for a favour, and I agreed. I didn’t expect the favour to be related to you, but it’s not hard to guess why he has a grudge against you. He probably hadn’t expected you to get into a larger gang than he has nor to become leader of that gang. To be fair, I went into the deal willingly, thinking that you had harmed my wife. That’s something I’m sorry for, but I don’t suppose apologizing would ever make up for it. Anyway, there you have it. My reasons._

There’s nothing more, no sign off either, and Woohyun flips the paper over a few more times to check to be sure. He feels like Howon would have written more, but maybe he’s just hoping for something else. Maybe he’s hoping for Howon to give him a reason to hate him. It’ll be much easier than the growing feeling of regret inside him at realizing what he had indirectly done to Howon’s wife. It’s not his fault, Woohyun knows, but it’s not Howon’s fault either. He wants to sit down but Woohyun doesn’t want to alarm Sungjong; doesn’t want the other man walking up close to him to realize that Woohyun’s not composed. So he remains standing, blinking away the wetness in his eyes as he clenches the paper in his fist. It doesn’t ease the pain in his chest, but it doesn’t make it worse, so Woohyun remains in this position until he finally calms down.

When he looks up again, dragging the back of his hand across his eyes to make sure it’s dry, Woohyun wonders if this is a regret he’ll bring to his grave. The regret of hurting Howon, in spite of everything Howon’s done. Maybe they’ve both done wrong to each other. Doesn’t matter. He still regrets what he had done. Woohyun closes his eyes, allowing a brief moment to wonder if things might have been differently if he hadn’t joined another gang; if he hadn’t left Howon that night after they got out of Sunggyu’s gang.

In the end he opens his eyes, chasing those thoughts away. There’s no point entertaining what-ifs.

 

 

The sun is still bright when Woohyun leaves, but it no longer reminds him of Dongwoo. He doesn’t want to think about anything related to that time of his life but he supposes he can’t exactly escape from the shadows when the sun is high in the sky like that. The brighter the light, the darker the shadow, wasn’t there some saying like that? Woohyun wonders if he has always been in the shadows.

Who was his sun?

(Surely Howon’s sun is his daughter.)

Who is his sun now?

(Maybe he doesn’t have any.)

As Woohyun raises a hand up to shield his eyes from the sun, he remembers the Greek story about Icarus. Maybe his downfall was from trying to fly too close to his sun. The thought gets a bark of laughter from inside his throat, startling Sungjong, but Woohyun doesn’t stop. Can’t stop. He doubles over in his laughter, but the sounds that escape his throat are harsh, dry and further from laughter than anything can be. When he finally composes himself, Sungjong walks up to him, holding the crumpled note Woohyun thought he had thrown away.

“Did you mean to throw this away?” Sungjong asks, like he doesn’t really care either way, and maybe he doesn’t.

Woohyun thinks for two seconds before he hears himself say, “Burn it.”

The light from the flame consuming the paper is bright, but not brighter than the sun, and it’s gone in an instant, leaving only charred ashes behind. Sungjong keeps his lighter back into his pocket, and Woohyun says without looking back, “Let’s go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end. I hope the epilogue explained what happened last chapter :) If not, you can leave your questions below~
> 
> Some behind-the-fic notes:  
> \- The chapter title hints when combined reads "The past never truly gets left behind: her end." and is referring to Howon's wife's death. That's the missing info for the plot twist.  
> \- For the fic title "For you I'll do anything", it's actually referring to Howon's attitude towards his daughter, although it might have seemed like it's for Woohyun's towards Howon at the start. Woohyun's actions in the prologue should have clued you in to this, actually, although maybe the wooya tag threw that off ._.
> 
> Anyway, thank you for reading~ Let me know what you think about the whole story/ending! ^^


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